MovieChat Forums > Pushover (1954) Discussion > Too old for a young Kim Novak

Too old for a young Kim Novak


What was the studio thinking teaming up old Fred with a lovely 29 year old Kim?

Far too old.

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She should have gotten a leading man the same age as her just once.

She was way too potent. She'd make any male actor her age look like a boy.

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...and bogey and bacall
you have a problem with them?

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She wouldn't have, partly because of the double standards, but mostly because Hollywood typically used their male stars to introduce a new female star, even if the age gap was 15-20 years (and in the case of William Powell [1892] & Esther Williams [1921] in The Hoodlum Saint [1946], 29 years!). After the 1930s--when studios used major actresses like Joan Crawford or Greta Garbo or Claudette Colbert to introduce us to up-and-coming male actors--the reverse was rare because of the double standards regarding "aging" star actresses!

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Of course they do make movies where the woman is older;however,this fact is usually part of the movie's plot.

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bogart and bacall.
stewart and grace kelly

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I believe she was 19 years old, not 29! In her bio, she and a friend were to start college after high school, went to L.A. on a lark and she was spotted and put in a movie! Age 19.

And I agree, old Fred was more than twice her age. He looks like her dad. Eww.

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She was 21...born 1933

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"Pushover" was filmed in January and February of 1954. MacMurray was forty-five, and Novak had her birthday in February, so she was twenty and possibly barely twenty-one in some scenes.

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It happens in real life all the time. People need to let go of their hang-ups and stop being so judgy.

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